WD Poetic Form Challenge: Rondeau Winner

I was very impressed by all the great attempts at the rondeau. Click here to read all the entries in the Comments. However, there can be only one winner, and…

I was very impressed by all the great attempts at the rondeau. Click here to read all the entries in the Comments.

However, there can be only one winner, and this time it was Brian Slusher. Congratulations, Brian!

Here's his winning rondeau:

Goodbye, by Brian Slusher

What does Love say to "Go away"?
Does it take a bow, then am-scray?
Or does it plant its pudgy heels
And explain-complain how it feels
To be adored and then betrayed?

Or does it mount a long delay
Recounting rosy, unclothed days
Preferring fantasy to real?
What does Love say?

But once it runs out of cliches
And old Valentines to x-ray,
Does it in tears decide to kneel
To stammer out its last appeal
And be handed a dead bouquet?
What does Love say?

*****

Here's the complete Top 10 list:

  1. "Goodbye," by Brian Slusher
  2. "The Affair," by Heather Forkos
  3. "Why Turn Back (the Clocks)?," by Cara Holman
  4. "Play," by Daniel Ari
  5. "Letting Go," by Bruce Niedt
  6. "Searching the Bypass," by Taylor Graham
  7. "At the Fortune Teller's Tent," by RJ Clarken
  8. "Oh Clair," by Mel Goldberg
  9. "Oh Rondeau Woe," by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
  10. "Poetry, she wrote," by Jacqueline Hallenbeck

Congratulations to everyone who made the Top 10 list! And thank you to everyone who participated! Not every great rondeau made the list, so keep trying. You could make it to the top in the next challenge (later this month).

*****

Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

*****

Get your poetry published!
Check out a copy of the 2011 Poet's Market, edited by Robert Lee Brewer. It lists hundreds of poetic publishing opportunities, includes great articles on the craft and business of poetry, and includes a one-year subscription to the poetry slice of WritersMarket.com site.

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.